


Dollar For Your Thoughts?

by ellievate



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC - Fandom
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hinting at mental illness or issues, Hurt/Comfort, mentions of past issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 15:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18995824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellievate/pseuds/ellievate
Summary: When Tim comes across a forlorn Stephanie he's unsure what to do- emotions aren't his forte. But when she looks at him like that, how can he do anything but help?Hints of TimSteph, could be read as TimSteph





	Dollar For Your Thoughts?

Nighttime in Gotham was always a special type of dark. Most avoided it, knowing the dangers that lurked in its seemingly infinite shadow. However some, a select few, knew this shadow. They walked it nightly, protecting those who stayed indoors from those will ill intentions, who often knew the night as well as they did.

However the night was cruel. It was cold as the city itself, and just as unforgiving. On a rare occasion, the night would pull one of her protectors too far into her grasp, leaving them stranded. Helpless, drawn too far into memories of nights past.

Tim was one of those protectors. However, tonight Tim wasn’t the one drawn in. It was another one of his fellow guardians- Stephanie.

It was strange for him to see her like this, sat upon an otherwise empty roof, legs dangling over the side, shoulders hunched. He couldn’t see her face but having the privilege of knowing her as well as he did he could image.

Features soft, never tense in moments like these. The corners of her lips softly downturned, brows gently furrowed.

He approached her, making his presence known and abandoning his usual stealth.

He stood silently by her for a moment, struggling to find the right words. He couldn’t help it, as much as he knew what he wanted to say it never quite came out like he wanted, often stopping awkwardly, though that fit the rest of his generally awkward demeanor.

“Dollar for your thoughts?”

Damn, he thought, can’t even say a simple saying without flubbing it up.

Stephanie looked up at him, eyes shiny, though whether it was from confusion or unshed tears he was unsure.

“Dollar for your thoughts?” She smiled slightly, a slight upturn of her lips than anything else, barely the smile Tim was hoping to coaks out of her, but still a start.

“Dollar for your thoughts yeah, you’re worth a lot more than the classic penny Ste-Spoiler.” He always seemed to make that slip with her during these moments. Something about her like this made him want to comfort her of course, but also to shelter her, as herself. Without the mask.

She turned her head back to the skyline in front of her. Pale lights barely peeking out, still and thick was the Gotham night.

Tim dropped down to meet her, slipping as gracefully as possible to her side, slipping a gentle arm around her waist.

He waited patiently for her to speak, knowing that his own prodding would only worsen her mood; The opposite of his goal.

“Sometimes I think it’s….” she trailed off, searching for the right words.

“Sometimes I think it’s over. I never think that it’s fake or a dream, I know I don’t have impostor syndrome or anything like that- and I know I’m not hallucinating either.” She gave a short dry laugh; So bitter Tim could almost taste it.

“Sometimes it feels like my last night. Not my last night on Earth of course- I’m not that melodramatic. But it feels like my last night with this.”

She threw her arms out in front of her, gesturing wildly at the city in front of her.

“Sometimes I feel like I’ll go back to the cave, and then Batman will tell me it’s over. My clock has sounded the alarm, my time has run out. That the greatest thing in my life, no, the entire basis for my current life, will be over. And then I’ll have lost who I am.”

She turned to him, eyes shining once again. This time Tim knew it was with tears.

“Ya know? Do you know what I’m saying?” She looked at him desperately, as if trying to implant her emotions within him with just a single look.

Tim just stared at her. And he wondered. He wondered how to make Steph; The most wonderful, bravest, fiercest girl he’s ever met believe what he knew to be true. That she’d be in this game just as long as the Bat, as Cass. As everyone else who’d make it their life.

“I don’t understand.” He said, still genuinely at a loss for words.

She looked at him, eyes squinting slightly with her, mouth curled with indignation.

“Whaddya mean you don’t understand? How could you not understand when I know that you-“ he quickly cut her off, not wanting her to go any farther down that path of thinking.

“I mean, I don’t understand how someone like you- someone so genuinely good at what we do could ever think, even for a moment, that any one of us would try to take that away from you.

You’re one of the best of us Steph, and I mean that. And I know it, with 100% certainty, that you’ll continue to be the best.

Because the only thing that’ll take you away from this for good is your own decision.” He finished, relaxing from where he’d tensed from his impassioned mini-speech.

Stephanie stared at him, mouth slightly ajar. Then she closed her mouth, turned away from him, and stood.

Tim sat frozen, terrified he’d somehow said the wrong thing. As he went over the past few minutes, desperately looking for where he’d messed up, because of course he did, a voice cut through that still and heavy night. Stephanie’s voice.

“Dollar for your thoughts, boy wonder?” Tim’s head whipped around, eyes wide under his mask as he looked at the slight crinkled at the corner of her eyes, mouth colored by a small but ever so bright smile.

Tim’s shoulders sagged with relief as he scrambled off the ledge to join her side, happy beyond words, twice in one night he’d been rendered near speechless by Stephanie, happy he hadn’t mangled the situation.

Tim looked at her, smile growing to match hers, the nights cold on Stephanie creeping away back to where it belonged.

“I’m rich” he said, smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth, “I think I’m good on dollars.” Sometimes he simply couldn’t resist a little snark.

He paid for it dearly a moment later, a punch coming swiftly towards his arm. He rubbed his arm, pouting at the slight sting.

She sighed.

“Dork.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr @ellievate!


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